Best super league season ever?

[Anita Bath]

What a fantastic season we are watching. Some great rugby being played and the Possibility of a six way tie at the top of the league after next weekend.

Long may it continue.

[up the robins]

Takeaway the bottom three and all the rest are capable of beating each other, this weekends results have been great for super league 

Huddersfield giving  St's a real battle,Rovers convincingly beating Wigan, Leigh demolishing Catalans and rounded off with a fantastic win for Salford over Warrington.

Given the fact all games are being televised i think the crowds have been rather encouraging as well.

[Pie tries]

Lots of good news about - let’s everyone focus on the positives - for a change !

[Snowys Backside]

As already mentioned, crowds have been great irrespective of TV exposure. 
 

Let’s hope Leigh can bunch them up even more with some more wins in the next few weeks

[sam4731]

I am firmly in the opposite camp. This is definitely the worst season that I can remember. I have no interest in an 8 team Super League which is what it feels like we have. I fear that at the end of the season we might see the biggest gap from the top 8 to the rest that we've seen in a while. I know that the bottom 4 will pick up wins against the top 8 but I think only a few.

All of this I put down to the fact that we've got no relegation. There's no incentive for those bottom 4 teams to fight for anything now.

[Anita Bath]

Surely its better than the three team superleague of recent years.  And that was when teams faced the risk of relegation.

 

[sam4731]

1 hour ago, Anita Bath said:

Surely its better than the three team superleague of recent years.  And that was when teams faced the risk of relegation.

 

The way I see it though is that you cannot have a 3 team SL. You have minimum the amount of teams you get in the playoffs plus any that are close because of the nature of the competition. In recent years it has felt that between 10-12 could feasibly make the playoffs.

[StandOffHalf]

There have been some really good, absorbing games, but it isn't the best season I have seen.

[HawkMan]

20 hours ago, sam4731 said:

I am firmly in the opposite camp. This is definitely the worst season that I can remember. I have no interest in an 8 team Super League which is what it feels like we have. I fear that at the end of the season we might see the biggest gap from the top 8 to the rest that we've seen in a while. I know that the bottom 4 will pick up wins against the top 8 but I think only a few.

All of this I put down to the fact that we've got no relegation. There's no incentive for those bottom 4 teams to fight for anything now.

I have to agree. This was demonstrated at Hull yesterday. Very poor crowd,  FC with nothing to play for  not going down and not good enough for play offs, previous evening,  Hull City playing for a play off place, packed stadium,  never seen it so full.

[Dave T]

18 hours ago, sam4731 said:

The way I see it though is that you cannot have a 3 team SL. You have minimum the amount of teams you get in the playoffs plus any that are close because of the nature of the competition. In recent years it has felt that between 10-12 could feasibly make the playoffs.

This is a weird take on a weekend when Leigh (joint 2nd from bottom on 2pts) wipe the floor with top of the table Catalans. 

I also suggest your memory isn't that good when suggesting that 10-12 could feasibly make the playoffs. No surprise, the teams 10-12 each year have been generally rubbish. 

I'm not really sure what your '8 team SL' really means tbh. 

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

I have to agree. This was demonstrated at Hull yesterday. Very poor crowd,  FC with nothing to play for  not going down and not good enough for play offs, previous evening,  Hull City playing for a play off place, packed stadium,  never seen it so full.

Poor team without a head coach gets poor crowd? Well, knock me down with a feather! 

[HawkMan]

5 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Poor team without a head coach gets poor crowd? Well, knock me down with a feather! 

You can't tell me the fact that FC have naff all to play for doesn't effect the crowd size.

[Worzel]

47 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

You can't tell me the fact that FC have naff all to play for doesn't effect the crowd size.

I think getting battered by more than 50 every week for a month might have had something to do with it...

Everyone knows London are going to finish bottom. Cas just battered them with 40 unanswered points, and even Hull in their worst form for 3 decades still managed to beat them in the end. It isn't a rare event to have one side so far off the pace, but it's clear relegation would add little or nothing to the narrative this season far more than many other seasons, so it's a pretty weird year to try to make that point to be honest. 

[gingerjon]

59 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

I have to agree. This was demonstrated at Hull yesterday. Very poor crowd,  FC with nothing to play for  not going down and not good enough for play offs, previous evening,  Hull City playing for a play off place, packed stadium,  never seen it so full.

I think you have to go back to 2001 before you get to a season where Hull FC's average gate was higher than Hull City's.

[HawkMan]

13 minutes ago, Worzel said:

I think getting battered by more than 50 every week for a month might have had something to do with it...

Everyone knows London are going to finish bottom. Cas just battered them with 40 unanswered points, and even Hull in their worst form for 3 decades still managed to beat them in the end. It isn't a rare event to have one side so far off the pace, but it's clear relegation would add little or nothing to the narrative this season far more than many other seasons, so it's a pretty weird year to try to make that point to be honest. 

But if London hadn't been relegated by edict before the season started then they might have got a stronger squad and we'd have a real dogfight at the bottom between them and Hull. If every point Hull gained really mattered then IMO the crowds would be higher.  If a stalwart like @Harry Stottle says he wouldn't go to games that were dead rubbers, dead for the home team ,maybe less committed fans feel the same.

Edited April 29 by HawkMan

[Worzel]

1 hour ago, HawkMan said:

But if London hadn't been relegated by edict before the season started then they might have got a stronger squad and we'd have a real dogfight at the bottom between them and Hull. If every point Hull gained really mattered then IMO the crowds would be higher.  If a stalwart like @Harry Stottle says he wouldn't go to games that were dead rubbers, dead for the home team ,maybe less committed fans feel the same.

No, London had already decided their squad strategy long before that. They don't have a weak squad because of the IMG points model. The real issue with London is that they weren't prepared to be a Super League side in 2024, and this shows the flaws of using raw promotion as a selection criteria for who should be in the elite division.

Even those clubs like Featherstone who may have had "promotion right now" as part of their plan hardly ever manage to cobble a SL-standard squad together in 8 weeks from the few cast-offs left. The history shows us it rarely works. 

[HawkMan]

3 minutes ago, Worzel said:

No, London had already decided their squad strategy long before that. They don't have a weak squad because of the IMG points model. The real issue with London is that they weren't prepared to be a Super League side in 2024, and this shows the flaws of using raw promotion as a selection criteria for who should be in the elite division.

Even those clubs like Featherstone who may have had "promotion right now" as part of their plan hardly ever manage to cobble a SL-standard squad together in 8 weeks from the few cast-offs left. The history shows us it rarely works. 

So you don't think if London knew that if they could finish 11th and stay up they would try to strengthen their squad ? And if Hull fans knew they'd be jeopardy re- their SL place, they might turn up in greater numbers?

[Dave T]

9 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

So you don't think if London knew that if they could finish 11th and stay up they would try to strengthen their squad ? And if Hull fans knew they'd be jeopardy re- their SL place, they might turn up in greater numbers?

Crowd fluctuation is down to many factors, including team performance, scheduling, marketing, prices, morale etc - I'd argue that Hull beibg a basket case and sacking their coach is a far bigger factor than any structure element. 

London's crowds have so far been better than 5 years ago when they were in a relaxation battle and had 10 wins. 

If we point to any other element being the factor, then I rest my case. 

[Harry Stottle]

17 minutes ago, Worzel said:

Even those clubs like Featherstone who may have had "promotion right now" as part of their plan hardly ever manage to cobble a SL-standard squad together in 8 weeks from the few cast-offs left. The history shows us it rarely works. 

It worked for the last team to gain promotion albeit they did not await to secure promotion, it was a straight business deal to 'speculate to accumulate' in forming a 3 year plan by amassing a squad very capable of securing promotion, fail in the first year and the 2nd year kicks in and so on.

Now tell me if Mr Hughes had not been told that "you are down before a ball is kicked" would that have altered his thought process, I have not a clue and would suggest you may not have either.

[Harry Stottle]

6 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Crowd fluctuation is down to many factors, including team performance, scheduling, marketing, prices, morale etc - I'd argue that Hull beibg a basket case and sacking their coach is a far bigger factor than any structure element. 

London's crowds have so far been better than 5 years ago when they were in a relaxation battle and had 10 wins. 

If we point to any other element being the factor, then I rest my case. 

Is that a Freudian slip Dave?

[Harry Stottle]

21 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

So you don't think if London knew that if they could finish 11th and stay up they would try to strengthen their squad ? And if Hull fans knew they'd be jeopardy re- their SL place, they might turn up in greater numbers?

In Hulls case I would say if P&R still existed Pearson would have done the same "speculate to accumulate" on the playing roster to ensure his club recieved the funding by maintaining a SL spot and by not being relegated, there is simply no pressure on Hull FC whatsoever he can save money this season by not being competitive under IMG's rules.

[Odsal Outlaw]

On 27/04/2024 at 20:33, Anita Bath said:

What a fantastic season we are watching. Some great rugby being played and the Possibility of a six way tie at the top of the league after next weekend.

Long may it continue.

I think it’s definitely one of the more competitive seasons and so many teams can beat each other. Not sure on quality though. In fact the Leeds v Hull game yesterday maybe sums it up … a good entertaining game that either team could have won - but the actually quality of rugby I found a bit poor at times.

For me the glory years and real quality were the early / mid 2000’s. But that’s probably because I’m a Bulls fan

[bobbruce]

4 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

In Hulls case I would say if P&R still existed Pearson would have done the same "speculate to accumulate" on the playing roster to ensure his club recieved the funding by maintaining a SL spot and by not being relegated, there is simply no pressure on Hull FC whatsoever he can save money this season by not being competitive under IMG's rules.

That’s true so at this point Hull would be trawling NSW and Queensland reserve grade to see if they could get a few Aussie players to get them out of trouble. Instead with their place safe they can bring players through from the academy instead. As someone said earlier they will reap the benefit of this in years to come. So which is the of these two options is better in the long term for British RL. 

[bobbruce]

18 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

It worked for the last team to gain promotion albeit they did not await to secure promotion, it was a straight business deal to 'speculate to accumulate' in forming a 3 year plan by amassing a squad very capable of securing promotion, fail in the first year and the 2nd year kicks in and so on.

Now tell me if Mr Hughes had not been told that "you are down before a ball is kicked" would that have altered his thought process, I have not a clue and would suggest you may not have either.

Do we know if this is certain that there is nothing London could do to prevent going out of SL. By this I mean if money was no object are there things they could do that would get their grading points into a position were they’d keep their place. 

[gingerjon]

Just now, bobbruce said:

Do we know if this is certain that there is nothing London could do to prevent going out of SL. By this I mean if money was no object are there things they could do that would get their grading points into a position were they’d keep their place. 

The set up put in place by David Hughes is so bad, and has been for so long, that I think it's been looked at, and short of offering outlandish bribes, there is no possibly way.